Jim Damato (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimdamato) is a senior technology leader with 20 years of experience taking enterprise software and IT initiatives from vision and strategy thru rollout and support. He has been successful in environments like publicly traded companies, quick-growing startups, and federal agencies.

Now at Scrum Inc, he helps companies achieve their Agile strategies by implementing Scrum. His expertise includes applying Scrum in a real-world, hands-on, boots-on-the-ground way across all levels of an organization.

More realist than purist, his passion is making the benefits of Scrum more accessible to everyone, especially executives.

schedule 9 months ago

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45 Mins

Talk

Intermediate

Change is hard (duh!) but the book Switch changed my life. While there are lots of change management models out there, Directing the Rider, Motivating the Elephant and Shaping the Path is the one I follow.

Scaling is hard too. But if we think about Change and Scaling together in the right way, maybe they don’t have to be quite so hard.

Recent polling of thousands of Scrum practitioners in the U.S. and Europe indicate that 66% of organizations are at the beginning stage of scaling Scrum. The State of Scrum report says 52% say their "organizational design and culture made it difficult to adopt and further scale Scrum". The State of Agile report says 63% say their "Company philosophy or culture [are] at odds with core agile values"

Think about your organization. Are executives disengaged? Are the agile teams executing independently like feral cats?

Come and learn three actionable things to make your scaling more successful, three things you can implement tomorrow to Direct the Rider, Motivate the Elephant and Shape the Path.

PiMP My Scrum - Looking at Scrum Through the Lens of Waterfall

schedule 1 year ago

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45 Mins

Talk

Beginner

Scrum is hard to understand, or so they say. But when we describe new topics in easy to understand language, suddenly it can all make sense.

We'll look at Scrum through the lens of Waterfall, to discuss how similar they really are if you think about the core concepts that make Scrum work so well and apply them to Waterfall in the right way.

We'll talk about how the first big hurdle isn't in changing the process, but rather in how you think about the process. This is particularly important because often we cannot change the process. However, we do have flexibility to operate *within* and *in addition to* the process, where we can inject tangible benefits, so we can create trust around the approaches, so we can get the support to move closer to pure Scrum.

This presentation will open your eyes to understanding how close you really are to Scrum if you just use this conceptual stepping stone.

Business Agility - Being the Bigger Dog in a Dog Eat Dog World (Even for a Chihuahua!)

schedule 1 year ago

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45 Mins

Talk

Advanced

Business is tough. If your market is any good, other companies want your revenue and market share. A lot comes your way that's beyond your control, so how do you stay competitive in a dog eat dog world? You strive for Business Agility.

Business Agility is about being able to sense, create and respond to change, quickly and confidently. Every organization has the bravado to think they do, but few actually can. Think about these local companies who are:

At the top end of the market being threatened by a newer, faster rival.

Experiencing a market shift threatening half their revenue.

Subject to whims of powerful regulation.

New in an emerging market and need to stay ahead of the major players.

Major change can come from all angles, whether from competitors, regulators or market shifts. Companies need to be able to execute not just at the execution level, not just as the portfolio level, but at the business level, so they can handle the change or better yet, BE the change.

Business Agility isn't about how big you are, it's about survival of the fittest. Whether you are a small business or a publicly traded company, be the bigger dog.

The Stepping Stone

schedule 2 years ago

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45 Mins

Talk

Beginner

SDLC Inertia is the biggest inhibitor to Agile adoption. Why? Organizational change is hard. Many institutions are reluctant to rip out existing processes due to tangled process tentacles and team interdependencies that are far reaching. Plus, not everyone is convinced that change is actually needed. It often takes subtlety and wisdom to recognize how much Agile to introduce, how much visibility it merits, and which particular practices will garner the most benefit in a given area.

So how do we maximize the benefits that Agile offers with minimal or smaller, incremental changes to existing processes? How do we improve execution when we can't change the process, can't teach people on the team new things and have no executive support? How do we inject agility when an organization has hostility towards Agile?

We focus on Agile best practices, enlighten slow-adopters why those methods exist, and prove their value in a non-Agile environment. The key is not to emphasize the techniques but focus on desired results instead. Sometimes, you implement Agile because the easiest way to adopt it... is by not mentioning “The A Word” at all.

Agile Metrics Case Studies - Let's Play Agile Coach

schedule 2 years ago

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45 Mins

Case Study

Intermediate

Learn how to judge the health of your Agile teams by doing a health check with real customer case study data. We'll look at data on team performance based on various Agile metrics such as Burnups/Burndowns, Cumulative Flow Diagrams, Velocity Chart, SDPI charts, and more. This will help to interpret possible challenges the team is facing and determine prescriptive action items that will influence improvement.

This will be an interactive session, where we’ll examine how to mine for internal performance data, evaluate what we can deduce from actions happening outside the boundaries of agile practices and pinpoint areas that will have the most impact on future projects to get them back on track. The goal is to turn work into data, data into insights and insight into action.

schedule 3 years ago

Sold Out!

60 Mins

Talk

Intermediate

Learn how to judge the health of your Agile teams by doing a health check with real customer case study data. We'll look at data on team performance based on various Agile metrics such as Burnups/Burndowns, Cumulative Flow Diagrams, Velocity Chart, SDPI charts, and more. This will help to interpret possible challenges the team is facing and determine prescriptive action items that will influence improvement. We’ll examine how to mine for internal performance data, evaluate what we can deduce from actions happening outside the boundaries of agile practices and pinpoint areas that will have the most impact on future projects and get them back on track. The goal is to turn work into data, data into insights and insight into action.